Tribological investigation of textile fabrics

There are several processes in textile finishing to improve fabric touch: one of them is sanding (emerizing). There is no current control system for this process. This study describes a tribological method for the quantization of sanding. Textile fabric is rubbed with a probe; the signal obtained is studied in the frequency domain. The calculated autospectrum shows a peak (or several peaks with the multi-directional roughness meter) which corresponds to the kind of weave or knit and the fabric density. The peak height increases with the process intensity and decreases after sanding. This phenomenon is due to a modification of fabric roughness. A tribometer with a probe linear movement has been used and a multi-directional roughness meter has been developed. The roughness meter can give the fundamental directions of the fabric relief which depend on the kind of weave or knit.